On a snowy Thursday Greenbelt Fund grantee Sick Kids Hospital, hosted a fair to sample a few of their new local food suppliers products. While the winter months aren’t exactly known for local food, it was no problem for Sick Kids to bring in suppliers of dairy, meat, breads and soy products.

Joshna Maharaj has been working with Sick Kids over the past few months to help source more local food items and train staff on the benefits of local products. This food fair was hosted to showcase some of the vendors to Hospital staff and a few patients.

Harmony Organics had samples of their delicious milk on-hand. Pristine Gourmet offered samples of their local cold pressed oils, infused wine vinegars and edamame. Stickling’s Organics from Peterborough served samples of their whole grain muffins. Rounding out the samplings was roast beef from Leavoy Rowe Beef and Joshna’s own bread pudding and carrot salad recipes.

During the summer months Sick Kids has a weekly farmers’ market, so having an indoor market was a big hit with staff on this snowy January day. In the foodservice office, Joshna has created a local food board that will showcase all the new vendors. She also posted a Greenbelt map to mark where the food vendors are located. We are excited about the work that has been done at Sick Kids and look forward to the Hospital continuing to build their local food offerings.

- Julienne Spence, Senior Communications Manager, Greenbelt Fund